USA > Wisconsin > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men, Wisconsin volume > Part 28
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noble manhood, leaves upon all with whom he has to do, the impress of a true character.
Dr. Patchen was first married on the 18th of October, 1843, to Miss Cynthia A. Coates, who died in January 1844. He was married again on the 19th of March, 1845, to Miss Sophronia Sutton, by whom he has two daughters, both now married and settled in Fond du Lac.
His course throughout has been marked by strict integrity, and the high standing to which it has led him is wholly due to his personal, zealous and con- scientious effort.
JOSEPH HOBBINS, M.D.,
MADISON.
JOSEPH HOBBINS, member of the Royal Col- lege of Surgeons, London; fellow of the Geo- logical Society, England; corresponding member of the Royal Horticultural Society, England, etc., was born December 28, 1816, at Wednesbury, Staf- fordshire, England. He is descended from an old Herefordshire family, the recumbent effigy of Sir Richard Hobbins (who lived in Elizabeth's reign) being still to be found in the church of Red Marsley, in that county. Both his father and mother were possessed of excellent minds and hearts, and were greatly loved and honored by their child- ren. The Doctor was educated chiefly at Colton Hall, Rugeley, by Daniel Sheridan, Esq., a relative of the celebrated Richard Brinsley Sheridan. His school life was distinguished by a faculty for versifi- cation, some of his youthful effusions finding their way into the periodicals of the day, and by an ar- dent and uncontrollable love of nature, which led him to absent himself for days together from school, to find "books in the running streams," and pleasure and self-forgetfulness in the beauty of that perfectly beautiful part of the country. Upon leaving school he commenced his medical studies with a physician of the same county, a gentleman of the highest standing in that part of England, with whom he re- mained five years, leaving only to enter Queen's College, Birmingham, where at the end of the ses- sion he was awarded the gold medal for a prize essay, and received other flattering testimonials. From Queen's College he entered at Guy's, London, this institution then ranking for advantages in study the highest in the country, having at its head the
great Sir Astley Cooper, and among its professors such men as Sir R. Bright, Addison Golding Boid, Hey, Ashwell, Hinton, A. S. Taylor, etc. Here he remained for two years, passing his classical examin- ation as a licentiate in medicine, and obtaining his diploma from the college. Having, while a student, visited the hospitals of Dublin and Edinburgh, he then took advantage of a journey through Belgium and France, to visit those of Brussels and Paris, and made his first visit to the United States.
It was on this voyage that he became acquainted with the lady who afterwards became his wife, Miss Sarah Russell Jackson, of Newton, Massachu- setts, by whom he had six children, three of them still living. On her mother's side she was a relative of Jonathan Russell, one of the United States com- missioners of the the treaty of Ghent; on her father's side the grand-daughter of General Michael Jackson, of the army of independence. This mar- riage, solemnized at St. George's Church, Liverpool, England, on October 11, 1841, led to the Doctor's return to this country, when he settled in Brookline, Massachusetts, became a fellow of the Massachu- setts Medical Society, and lived there for three years, and then on account of ill health crossed the Atlan- tic again. After another visit to the continent and several pedestrian tours in Wales, Scotland, and England (letters descriptive of these last being pub- lished in the Boston " Star"), he resumed practice in his native town, always, however, being determined to return to the West. After an absence of eight years, he once more (this time in concert with his family, numbering with relatives and servants forty-
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two persons) set out for the United States, and hav- ing made choice of Madison, Wisconsin, for his future home, arrived there in the spring of 1854. Here he soon began to manifest an interest in the things about him, and at the suggestion of Chancel- lor Lathrop, of the State University, undertook to organize its medical department. As the result of his labors this department was organized in 1855, and the Doctor was elected one of its professors in 1856. Being a member of the city council he was able to procure an appropriation of six thousand dollars for the purpose of a city hospital, and pur- chased the lots, still called the hospital lots. But the whole enterprise fell through, owing to the mis- application of the university appropriation by the treasurer of the medical department.
The Doctor was a member of the first city coun- cil, and represented his ward for four years, and until he resigned. His attention was now directed to the horticultural wants of the State, and he com- menced experimenting in his garden, in order to discover the varieties of fruits, plants, etc., suitable to the climate. His efforts were at once recognized by his being elected an officer of the City Horticul- tural Society, serving as secretary, and afterward as president for some twelve years, and holding at the same time for five years the office of president of the State Horticultural Society, justly earning the title given him, "the father of horticulture in the northwest." Upon the breaking out of the war he at once took a decided stand for the Union. Soon after Camp Randall was established, the Doctor, acting for the State, took charge of the sick left be- hind by the different regiments going to the field,
and upon the rebel prisoners being sent to Madison, was appointed surgeon-in-charge. He was also ap- pointed pension examining surgeon.
In politics he has always been independent, but during the war acted with the war democrats.
In 1870, December 13, he lost his wife. His second marriage occurred at Baltimore, Maryland, April 16, 1872, with Mary, the youngest daughter of the late Louis McLane, of Delaware, by whom he has one son. The character of Louis McLane, as a statesman, a scholar, and a gentleman, is duly appre- ciated by those who admire talents, and respect honor. His public services at home and abroad have reflected honor upon his country, and given him a lasting fame. The suspicion of selfishness, still less that of corruption, was never connected with his name. His private life is the beautiful counterpart of his public character ; the shafts of calumny never penetrated either. His daughter, the wife of Dr. Joseph Hobbins, differs from her father only in her sex. She is his softened image.
Dr. Hobbin's life has been one of honorable use- fulness. Learned in his profession, skillful in his practice, honorable in his dealings, he commands the admiration of the intelligent, and the homage of the virtuous. The society of himself, wife and daughter, renders his home an interesting retreat to the student of science, the devotee to literature, and the lover of art. Upon entering the domicil, hospi- tality, urbanity, classic association, like so many in- mates of the dwelling, cling around the heart, and bid it welcome. No one visits that retreat but with anticipations of pleasure. No one leaves it but with the consciousness of mental improvement.
LEWIS SHERMAN, M.D.,
MILWAUKEE.
I EWIS SHERMAN was born November 25, 1843, at West Rupert, Vermont. He is the son of William and Hannah Sherman. His parents were religious people, and gave him careful moral training. His father, having a great fondness for mathematics, gave him a rigid course in that science from his early boyhood. He attended a common school until he was thirteen years of age, when he entered an academy. After an academic course of five years ·he entered Union College, Schenectady, New York, as a sophomore; he graduated in the
class of 1865, and in 1868 received the degree of M.A. After leaving college he engaged for one year in teaching a band of soldiers' children at Deposit, New York. He then went to New York city and entered the Union Thelogical Seminary, where he remained two years. He left the seminary and took a regular course in the medical department of the University of New York, graduating in 1870. He came to Wisconsin in May of the year 1870 and set- tled in Milwaukee, where he commenced the prac- tice of his profession. After practising a year in the
Enga by WP
Lavis Sherman
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regular school he became convinced that homœ- opathy was the better practice. In 1872 he went into partnership with I. S. Douglas, M.D., his present partner. They have built and are at present pro- prietors of the only homœopathic pharmacy in the State. Dr. Sherman has grown into a large and suc- cessful practice. He does not belong to any church, and is liberal in his religious views.
Dr. Sherman is secretary of the State Medical Society, elected at the session of 1874. He has traveled over the greater part of the United States. His ancestors settled in Connecticut at an early day and some of them were soldiers in the war of the revolution.
In 1861 Dr. Sherman invented and constructed with his own hands a gnomon, or sun-dial, capable of giving at one observation sidereal or clock time, solar time, the latitude of the place of observation and the declination of the sun. In 1870 he invented a spi- rometer, in which the errors of varying temperature of the atmosphere are estimated; also an instrument for measuring the force of expiration in pounds per square inch.
He has spent a considerable portion of his leisure hours in the study of practical botany, and has one of the finest herbariums in the State. His work is thoroughly methodical.
In politics he has always been a republican.
WILLIAM W. TREDWAY,
MADISON.
W TILLIAM WISE TREDWAY descended in a direct line from Nathaniel Tredway, who settled at Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1650, and was one of the selectmen of that town in 1653 to 1666. He was born at Ashford, Connecticut, on the Ist of July, 1804. His father and family re- moved thence to Montgomery county, New York, in 1807. His education was limited to the acquisition of the mere rudiments, though he had stood steadily at the head of the highest spelling class for several months prior to leaving school, which happened in his twelfth year, at which time (1816) he entered a store in Schenectady, New York, as an apprentice. In 1823, on the completion of the Erie canal, at nineteen years of age, he became master of a canal packet boat, and continued three years. At that period these boats were popular and largely patron- ized by the traveling public.
He was married in 1826 at Schenectady to Mary Brown, who was born and reared in that city. Was engaged in merchandising there from 1826 to 1839, during which time he filled various civil offices, as school commissioner, and now has in his possession his commission as major of a separate battalion of flying artillery, dated January, 1834, and signed by Governor W. L. Marcey, of New York, and Levi Hubbell, adjutant-general; the latter, now United States district attorney for the eastern district of Wisconsin, was in command for six years. Was county clerk of Schenectady county in 1837 and 1838, and appointed deputy comptroller of the State
under the whig administration of W. H. Seward, governor, on the 4th of March, 1839, and held the office three years. Came to Wisconsin in 1842, purchased and settled on a farm in Eagle (now Waukesha) county; in 1848 sold his farm and com- menced merchandising in the adjoining town of Genessee, where he resided for two years, during most of which time he held the office of justice of the peace, though he made his court a court of con- ciliation as far as practicable in civil cases, discour- aging litigation to his utmost ability, and generally with success. In very many cases parties living miles distant and having unsettled claims against each other, met at his office by mutual arrangement and agreed to abide by his judgment in the matter, and in all cases were perfectly satisfied; no docket entry nor taxing of cost. In this connection candor compelled him to acknowledge the commission of a great error. While his attention was required to drafting a contract which he was in the act of doing, a man came near and said : "Squire, what am I to do with Fry? He has been to my house drunk in my absence, and abused my family, and thrown down my fences, and turned my cattle into the high- way." Without considering the fact that his reply would be regarded as a judicial decision in the case, he said : "Why don't you lick him?" and straight- way forgot the matter. That evening the drunken, quarrelsome Fry was handled very severely, and consequently kept his bed for a week under the doctor's care, but recovered both his health and
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good nature. The evilspirit was effectually cast out, and he, "clothed, and in his right mind," became a model neighbor and peaceable citizen, and so continued. He removed with his family to Madison in June, 1858, where he has since resided. Early in May, 1861, he was invited to accept the office of quartermaster-general of the State, and was commissioned by Governor Randall, and for the succeeding sixteen months was actively employed, with a number of assistants, in discharging his official duties, having within that period purchased on his own judgment army clothing, camp and garrison equipage amounting to a million and a quarter of dollars. In 1865 he was appointed by the governor State agent for obtaining the allowance at the United States treasury of Wisconsin's war claims, which had been previously disallowed or suspended, and obtained the allowance of about two hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars after a suspension of about four years. The few offices which he has held have been conferred unsought by
him in all cases. Under wills, as executor, and by appointment as administrator, and as assignee, he has settled numerous estates, and at this time is the legal guardian of several families of minor children.
Politically, was a Henry Clay whig and republi- can, and voted for Grant under protest at his first election. Was a delegate to the Cincinnati conven- tion of disaffected republicans in 1872, and sought to effect the nomination of Charles Francis Adams for president, but Greeley was unfortunately nomi- nated. He has always held it to be a duty to protest against party wrongs, and when they become unendurable to bolt. He holds that political parties continuously in power always become corrupt and require an occasional defeat.
He has been a member of the Presbyterian church nearly forty-five years.
Having passed threescore and ten years, he is now in a green old age, enjoying the reward of his labors in the consciousness of having discharged all the duties imposed on him with strict integrity.
CHARLES H. HAMILTON,
MILWAUKEE.
C' HARLES HADLEY HAMILTON, born at Rochester, New York, August 5, 1850, was the son of Charles S. and Sophia J. Hamilton. His father was a graduate of West Point, a classmate of President Grant, and a soldier of the Mexican war, and the war of the rebellion ; was severely wounded at the battle of Molino del Rey, and breveted cap- tain for gallant and meritorious conduct. Resigned in 1852, and removed to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where he entered into business, and remained until 1861. He was appointed colonel of the 3d Wiscon- sin by Governor Randall, and in about six months, brigadier-general, by President Lincoln. Afterward he was made major-general by Lincoln for winning the battle of Iuka with twenty-eight hundred men against eighteen regiments of confederates under Price and Van Dorn. He resigned in 1863, and in 1869 was appointed United States marshal for the district of Wisconsin, by President Grant, which position he has since held.
Charles H. was educated at the Fond du Lac public high school, and the university of Michigan. The natural sciences, especially chemistry, metal- lurgy and mineralogy were favorite studies, and those
in which especial proficiency was attained. After leaving the high school, he spent one year in sur- veying, principally on the United States survey of Lake Superior. Entered the junior class of Michi- gan University in 1868, and graduated as a mining engineer in 1869. After graduating, came to Mil- waukee. Came to this State when a child, in 1852. After graduating, was appointed deputy United States marshal for Wisconsin, which office he held until 1873. During this time he studied law, and was admitted to the Milwaukee county bar in 1872. He intended to become a lawyer, but constant inter- mingling with lawyers caused a distaste to both the profession and its professors, and seeing a business opening which promised favorably, entered the house of Sylus Van Buren and Co., as junior part- ner. One partner having died and the other sold out, he became sole proprietor of the present firm and business, and at the age of twenty-four, after two years' business experience, now controlling the largest paper business in the State, and one of the largest and most prosperous in the West. Orthodox- ically liberal.
A strict republican in the spirit of republicanism,
OH Hamilton
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but not the letter. Took an active part in the pres- idential campaign of 1872, but not since then.
He was married, April 16, 1873, to Carrie A. Nichols, daughter of the late esteemed Henry A. Nichols.
The first ancestor of the name who came to this country, was William Hamilton, son of Gallatru Hamilton, of Glasgow, Scotland, who was of the family of the dukes of Hamilton, and marquises of Abercorn. Came to this country in 1641. De- scendants since then have lived in Connecticut and New York principally, and have nearly always at- tained great longevity. C. H. Hamilton was started in business in 1847 by Josiah Noonan and Peter Mc- Nab, in East Water street, in one-half of a twenty- foot store. Business has changed hands six or seven
times, and has had many ups and downs, a great deal of money having been made out of it, and much lost, but under the present management its success has been constant and increasing. Amount of capital employed is upward of forty thousand dollars. Extent of premises, forty feet front by one hundred and forty feet deep. Location 354 and 356 Broadway, Milwaukee. Amount of annual sales, three hundred thousand dollars. Special fea- ture to which they attribute success, strictly adher- ing to business rules ; yet always treating all custom- ers with courtesy, and trying to bind them to the concern by ties of personal friendship and good- will. Their trade extends from Pennsylvania to Utah, but principally in Wisconsin, Iowa and Min- nesota.
MAJOR GEORGE ANDERSON,
MADISON.
G EORGE ANDERSON was born in Somer- J set county, New Jersey, on the banks of the Raritan river, two miles above the city of New Brunswick, on the 8th of March, 1784. His father's name was Simon, and his mother's maiden name was Mary Van Angren. His father was a respectable farmer, whose ancestors came from Scotland. George was brought up on the farm under the general man- agement of his mother, his father having died when he was ten years of age. He attended the common schools of the county, and commenced business for himself by keeping a hotel in the town of Piscataway and the village of New Market, at the same time carrying on the business of farming in the neighbor- hood. Moved from New Jersey to Staten Island, New York, keeping a hotel and farming there. Thence moved to Philadelphia county, Pennsylvania, to the farm of John C. Craig, the brother-in-law of Nicholas Biddle, and took charge of the blooded stock of Mr. Craig and of W. R. Johnson of Virginia, the Napoleon of the turf. Continued in that occu- pation five years, and until the death of Mr. Craig, who died in Italy. Upon Mrs. Craig's return after the death of her husband, this property was sold, and Mr. Anderson removed to Fulton county, Illi- nois; thence to Wisconsin in the spring of 1839, settling on a farm of Colonel W. B. Slaughter, at what was then termed the City of the Four Lakes, and remaining there several years, in the meantime
owning some fine blooded horses, descendants of the celebrated stock of Craig and Johnson. Thence he moved to Sun Prairie in the spring of 1842 and opened a farm of four hundred acres and continued to cultivate it until 1867, when he sold his farm and removed to Baraboo, thence to Madison, where he now resides. He was married three times. His first wife was a daughter of Captain Tennick, of the revolutionary war. His second wife was the widow Duncomb. His third and present was a Miss St. Clair. He had no children by the last two wives, and seven by the first, five sons and two daughters; four only are living. Major Anderson has held sev- eral offices, the duties of which he has faithfully and honestly discharged. He was for several years supervisor of the town of Sun Prairie, chairman of the county board, under-sheriff three years, collector of taxes of Dane and Sauk counties, and settling his accounts without making a mistake. He was also deputy United States marshal. He is now living in comfortable retirement upon the interest of the money his industry and economy have enabled him' to accumulate. Major Anderson's natural capabili- ties enabled him to enjoy the full benefit of the so- ciety of such cultivated gentlemen as Nicholas Biddle, John C. Craig and W. R. Johnson of Virginia, with whom he was intimately connected in business for five years, and his retentive memory enables him to narrate many interesting incidents characteristic of
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those gentlemen. In illustration of the ready wit and imperturbable self-possession of Colonel Johnson he relates that on his return to Philadelphia from New Jersey, when the great race between Mr. John- son's horse Boston and Mr. Gibbon's mare Fashion had just been run, and while still on the crowded ferry-boat, Colonel Johnson felt some one's hand in his pocket, and instantly clasping and holding it, turned his head and said, "My friend Mr. Gibbon
won the race to-day." Although Major Anderson is in his ninety-second year, his bodily health is good, his mind cheerful, his manners easy and dig- nified, and looks very like, as he is, a gentleman of the olden time. His present vigor of mind and body is an eloquent commentary upon temperance, industry, and cheerfulness, that badge of a gentle- man. If the prayers of his friends avail he will complete a century.
HENRY S. DURAND,
RACINE.
H ENRY S. DURAND was born in Cheshire, Connecticut, February 13, 1817. Is a son of Samuel and Eloise Durand. He received a com- mon-school education at Berlin, Hartford county, and at the age of thirteen entered as clerk in a store at Hartford, and was there two years. He then returned to Berlin, and was apprenticed to Mr. E. Brandegee until he became of age. His compensa- tion was simply his board and clothes, and although at eighteen years of age he was offered eighteen hundred dollars a year by another firm, he declined and served out his time. When seventeen years old he was sent to New York to purchase goods and transact other business, which indicated great confi- dence in him, and was regarded as an honor in those days. From that time he purchased all the goods, kept the books, had the chief management of the store and two cotton mills. When he was of age he became agent for the Hartford and New Haven Railway, in whose interest he acted for several years. In the spring of 1843 he removed to Wisconsin, and settled at Racine, where he has ever since resided. He commenced a mercantile business, and then added that of produce and commission, then lumber and coal; also the manufacture of lumber in Michi- gan, in connection with which he had a fleet of five first-class vessels on the lakes, and was uniformly successful in his various enterprises. In connection with three others he purchased the land and laid out the city of La Crosse. He opened a store, built a hotel, school house, church, court house, jail, steam saw-mill, and a large number of dwellings. The town grew rapidly, and is to-day one of the most prosperous cities of the Northwest. Mr. Durand was vice-president of the Racine County Bank, and afterward president of the Commercial Bank of Ra-
cine; was also president for thirteen years of the Racine and Mississippi Railway Company. His connection with that enterprise brought him in bus- iness relations with many banking, manufacturing and mercantile firms, which gave him a great repu- tation for his business talents, energy and industry. In 1844 he commenced the insurance business as agent of the Ætna Insurance Company, and issued the first policy ever written in Wisconsin. This Racine office is still in existence, and is the oldest insurance agency in the State. In 1860 he estab- lished an insurance agency in Milwaukee, which was successful. In 1845 he commenced the adjust- ment of losses, his first effort being for the Ætna, in Milwaukee, after the memorable fire of that year, and during the thirty-one years that have elapsed since, he has probably adjusted upward of ten thou- sand claims. In May, 1859, he became the special agent and adjuster of the Home, of New York, for the States of Wisconsin and Minnesota, but in 1867 he was appointed general adjuster for that company for the northwestern States. It may be said that Mr. Durand initiated the special agency system, and has had under his supervision upward of one hun- dred agencies, more than ninety of these agencies showing profitable results. He is familiar with the law of insurance, and, it is said, can cite any adjudi- cation that has ever been made on the subject in this country. His library contains all the books on the subject of insurance that have been printed since 1800, and is probably the most extensive in the world on that subject. Notwithstanding the multiplicity of his occupations, he has found time for much mental culture. Has great admiration for works of art, and his home abounds in gems in this department. He has also a fondness for live stock,
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